Summary of Medium is the Message

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my first Humanities project, Medium is the Message!

This project was all about learning and creating ads for real world businesses. The driving question for the project was “how does what we hear, read, and see influence us?” I did the this project with my fellow PLP students, Dylan, Caitlin, Max, Andrew and Jupiter. The business we were assigned was Deep Cove Music, which is a business in Deep Cove that teaches music lessons and sells instruments.

After we learned what the big idea for this project is, we started developing knowledges about different ads. Some key things that we did were our Advertising Photo Journal, a Zoom Interview with a Mr. Hepburn (somebody in Vancouver that is an advertising consultant), and a Historical Media Analysis. Our Advertising Photo Journal was a place where we put pictures of ads that we found in our day to day lives. After we got lots of photos we answered some questions about the them ads. The Zoom Interview was done as a class and we all took notes about the things he had to say. The main thing he taught us was KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. I didn’t like how he put that so I just remembered to keep them simple. Another key thing we did was a Historical Media Analysis. We chose an historical ad and then we analyzed it and answered some questions. The ad I chose was the “How many licks” by Tootsie Roll in 1968.

Then with all the knowledge we have about advertising, we started making ads. The original one I had was not very eye catching and it also had to much information.  I went through quiet a few drafts before I realized this. When I did I changed the the lists that I had to one sentence about their lessons, which was the main product they wanted us to advertise. It looked much better but I could do better. Then I got some feedback about how I should make the photo around the words, but instead the words around the photo. Immediately I changed it by making the photo bigger and touch the sides. I was happy with my final group ad.

 Next we looked over the other ads my group members had made. We look parts that we loved about them and smushed them together. We worked hard on drafts for our Final Group Ad. We sent them to Mr. Hepburn and Deep Cove Music. We got feedback about making the background something in Deep Cove and also to make the formation of the title more interesting. We make the title pop fast. We did have to do drafts but it wasn’t that hard. Then the background. We needed to remove some of it from the photo we had of a guitar. I spent hours doing this because as soon as I completed the task, it deleted the progress. I couldn’t do it. Luckily one of my group members got it and finished my Group Ad. We chose which one we though best and we finished our Final Group Ad.

Now some things I had trouble with in this project were, admittedly, working with my group members. I am not really a team player and I don’t like group projects. I really want to get better at this and I believe I am. This is a big reason I joined PLP, to learn to work with others. Another thing that was challenging was just all the homework we had to remember along with our other classes. I have gotten through it though and I have learned to write homework to do as soon as I get it. Some of the things that wasn’t so hard was staying on task and reminding others to do the same. I remember so many that my group was derailed and I got them back on.

Now on to the answer to the Driving Question: how does what we hear, read, and see influence us? It influences by getting into our brain and sitting in the back of the unconscious. When this happens we will remember it and do what it tells us to do within reason.

Hope this was either helpful or interesting.

Goodbye for now, Judah G!